Tamiya 35341 Japanese Army Officer Set

Formally, the Empire of Japan entered World War II with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, but from 1937, Japan carried out large-scale military operations in China. The Japanese land forces at that time were known as the Imperial Japanese Army. Imperial Japanese Army, Japanese Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun) and at the end of 1941 had 51 divisions which, together with numerous separated units, had a strength of approximately 1.7 million people. These significant fighting forces were commanded by the Japanese officer corps, which more or less identified with the samurai tradition and adopted the bushido code as its code of honor. This identification was also emphasized by the side weapon, which was very often a shin gunto (introduced in 1934), i.e. a sword / saber referring in shape and parameters to a samurai katana. It is worth noting that there were a total of three types of this sword: Type 94, Type 95 and Type 98. Let us add that the Japanese officer also often used the 8mm Type A or Type 14 Nambu pistol as a side weapon. he was able to introduce an iron, even draconian discipline in the ranks of the Japanese army and instill in recruits a fighting spirit that was unheard of in any other army of the time, bordering on fanaticism. On the battlefield, Japanese officers also showed quite a bit of courage, often leading their subordinates in the first line to battle (e.g. the commander of the garrison on Iwo-Jima - General Kuribayashi), and in case of failure by committing ritual seppuku - another reference to the samurai tradition. This was the path chosen by the commander of the Japanese troops in Okinawa - General Ushijima. On the other hand, they often used (especially from the turn of 1942/1943) not very prudent tactical solutions, sacrificing their soldiers senselessly. They can serve as an example here. the so-called banzai charges (jap. banzai totsugeki ).